Bayhealth Medical Center: Cloud ERP Migration and the Power of Trust
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Neah Downs Dybas, Director of Customer Loyalty
Healthcare providers are increasingly moving to cloud-based ERP systems to achieve more nimble and leaner processes, make more data-driven decisions and lower operational costs. There is much to be learned from forerunners who continue to reveal trends, benefits and opportunities for improvement.
GHX has had the privilege of collaborating with Delaware-based Bayhealth Medical Center during its transformation from an unintegrated system of ERPs spanning multiple business segments to a single cloud-based platform. Brian Dolan, Vice President, Resource Management, is leading this synergistic effort and is already seeing big returns in clinical, financial and operational areas—and for the future-state needs of Bayhealth.
Dolan shared why his first step prior to beginning the move to cloud was building trust and collaboration among Bayhealth’s interdisciplinary ERP team. “Each team had their own group of people who were experts and subject matter enthusiasts when it came to their particular area of the ERP,” he said. “So when we started talking about the process of implementing into one single integrated cloud system, a lot of anxiety started building amongst team members.”
Dolan spent considerable time figuring out what change meant to his team and leveraged his history as an instructor at the University of Kansas School of Medicine to prepare and lead a comprehensive team culture workshop. Focusing on the human element of big operational change, Dolan recognized that even with best-in-class software “your human systems can definitely pull you off course.”
Along those lines, Dolan emphasized that one ongoing benefit of the migration will be to provide end-users with much greater access to data and information. “With the cloud, we’re really working toward re-educating our teams on how to be better consumers of data,” he said. “They now have greater access to information that is visible, present and customizable to them. We’re not just throwing reports at them. Having this more integrated approach will enable us to better understand our business and the business of healthcare.”
Bayhealth’s integrated approach—and expanded data—has already resulted in a big pricing win. Dolan said that “a nurse manager caught a price variation problem and said, ‘Hey, I thought we were supposed to be saving money.’” The data revealed a pricing error with the GPO and in less than 24 hours their team had figured it out. “The result was a $1 million dollar pricing credit! It was an extremely empowering moment for everyone here,” he said.
To learn more about Bayhealth’s innovative approach, join us on December 7 for Transformation and the Power of Trust: Prioritizing Data and Collaboration in your Cloud ERP Migration. During this webinar, Dolan will provide a detailed roadmap of their transformation to cloud ERP, downloads from his team culture workshop, and inspirations from his dog Hank (#Hankspirations)—as well as highlight key strategic objectives that the migration has helped make achievable.
Dolan has 18 years’ experience in perioperative services, clinical engineering and supply chain management in various positions and started his career as a surgical technician. He has a Bachelor of Science in Health Information Management, a Master’s in Health Services Administration, both from the University of Kansas, and is currently working on a Doctorate in Health Sciences with emphasis in organizational excellence and healthcare quality at Baypath University in Massachusetts. He is an inaugural member of Unite 360: The GHX Advocate Community, a professional community expanding in 2022 to unite, learn and advance healthcare together through critical problem solving, improvements in processes and technology, and mentoring others.